Play, Pause, and Stop
by OneAbsurdMentality
Summary: Truth or dare is fun, but not when you've been taken to the shadow realm. It's even less so when you realize that your fate is in the hands of... Well, whoever reads this story and reviews. This is a story that is told by YOU, so what's going to happen to them now? Rating subject to change. Pairings: Bakura x Ryou, Seto x Jounouchi, Mariku x Malik, and Atemu x Yuugi


I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or anything affiliated with it. I'm just playing in the sandbox.

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><p>It all started with a little awry shadow magic.<p>

Well... It actually started with a game of truth or dare. To be honest, maybe it wasn't such a good idea for Jounouchi to have dared Malik's psychotic yami to infuse the game with a bit of magic to make it more fun.

Everyone turned to the blond and gave him a glare. Atemu pulled Yuugi closer to him, and Bakura did the same for Ryou. Seto pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a mutter that sounded suspiciously like 'damn mutt', while Malik was just too shocked someone was actually that big of a dunce to do anything at all.

Mariku broke the silence first with cackling laughter that echoed in the cloud of shadows that they sat in. There was nothing but dark above, below, and to the sides of them, and nothing was left of the living room that they had been sitting in prior to the dare.

"What did you do, damn it?!" Bakura snarled at the laughing Egyptian, watching the shadows warily. He reached out through his mind link with his hikari and relaxed marginally when he sensed that the dark atmosphere had not harmed Ryou in any way. Naturally, Atemu had done the same thing with Yuugi, and was now more annoyed then angry.

The glares sent to Jou shifted to Mariku, and the Egyptian just grinned at them.

"Mariku!" Bakura and Atemu shouted simultaneously, gritting their teeth at the other yami in the space.

"Alright, alright! No need to get your panties in a knot!" Mariku smirked. "I simply... Made this game a bit more interesting. The shadows around us will only disappear and let us leave when the game is over, and the game can only be finished when someone accepts the penalty game of this realm." The grin turned dark, and his bangs shadowed his piercing, narrow eyes.

Atemu ground his teeth, and Seto finally reacted by gently grabbing onto Jounouchi's hand. Yuugi leaned into his yami more, who reacted by pulling him in a little tighter in reassurance.

Bakura was extremely close to lashing out at the other dark, his own shadow magic crackling ominously in the inky blackness around him and his hikari defensively.

"Oh calm down!" Mariku snorted and rolled his eyes. "You think I'd put my Malik in danger?" He asked the others hypothetically. A collective breath was released as Mariku gave his hikari a kiss on the side of his head. Malik smiled in relief that his yami hadn't totally lost it again, and also in apology for the others behavior.

"Then what is the penalty game?" Atemu asked, still suspicious.

"There actually isn't one. You see, the area I've transported us to contains very little of our world, and can change at the will of _them_."

"Them?" Yuugi asked, the first of the hikaris to speak since the change in area.

"The guardians of this realm. They can change it at will, and only they can release us. Until then, we have to play the game to appease them. Adds a bit of spice, doesn't it?"

"Mariku, I'm going to kill you." Bakura snarled, popping his knuckles. Ryou had to physically latch onto his yami to stop him from rising and carrying through with his threat.

"So now what? Do we just wait around?" Seto asked sarcastically, his tone hard enough to cut diamond.

"We keep playing until they're appeased, and they release us." Mariku shrugged and pulled Malik in closer with his arm swung around the hikari's tanned shoulder.

"But, from what I've read about this place, they can control the flow of time-"

**[PAUSED]**

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><p>Put in your reviews anything you want to dare them, or make them admit, and it will be incorporated into the story. And yes, you are <em>them<em>.

This will be updated when I have enough truth and dares to continue and make a substantial chapter.

~OneAbsurdMentality


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